The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, (SEAI) has recently published a report on Renewable Energy performance in Ireland. SEAI on was established as Ireland’s national energy authority under the Sustainable Energy Act 2002. SEAI’s mission is to play a leading role in transforming Ireland into a society based on sustainable energy structures, technologies and practices.

Over the past 20 years Ireland’s overall use of Bioenergy has been constantly increasing. Bioenergy is renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources. As a fuel this may include wood, wood waste, straw, manure and many other by-products from a variety of agricultural processes.

One of SEAI’s main roles is to develop and maintain statistics for energy production, transformation and end use. Some of the facts and figures which they produced include:

Industrial biomass energy use (mostly in the wood, food and cement sectors) accounted for 68% of all thermal renewable energy used in 2011, which corresponds to 2.9% of all thermal energy use in Ireland.

The table attached below shows the different fuel types used in Ireland and the growth and quantity of these types of fuel.

It can be seen that the total amount of renewable energy has increased by 0.6% during 2012 to 838 ktoe (Kilotonne of Oil Equivalent). While hydro and biomass increased by 13.5% and 20% respectively, wind fell by 8.4% and other renewables (mainly biofuels) fell by 8%, resulting in the small overall increase in renewables in 2012.

Industrial biomass energy use increased by 167% (6% average annual growth) between 1990 and 2006. However there has been a decrease in industrial Renewable Heat Energy recently with an average annual reduction of 2% since 2006. The industrial biomass demand in 2011 remained unchanged at the 2010 demand level.

Residential biomass energy use increased by 9.5% between 1990 and 2011. However the average annual growth rate increased in recent years to 18% between 2005 and 2010.

The contribution of renewable energy to overall energy demand in Ireland rose from 2.3% to 5.6% between 1990 and 2010, and reached 6.5% in 2011. Ireland’s target is to achieve 16% by 2020 under EU Directive 2009/28/EC.

While the situation is improving, it now seems unlikely that Ireland will hit its 2020 targets without further market stimulation or incentivisation.

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About biopadblog

Developing a local bioenergy market can provide significant opportunities for rural and remote areas, by improving security of energy supply, contributing to a reduction in CO2 emissions and stimulating the local economy by creating jobs and keeping payments for energy within the local community.
A new project, BioPAD (Bioenergy Proliferation and Deployment), which targets the Northern Periphery of Europe, aims to ensure that bioenergy becomes more widely used and that awareness of the opportunities it provides are increased. The project will help the development of bioenergy and improve our understanding of the links between supply and demand by looking at supply chains for a variety of bioenergy fuels and different ways of converting these fuels into sustainable energy. Understanding the supply chains and the ways bioenergy moves from fuel source to energy provision will help the establishment of robust and efficient supply services which can match local demand.
BioPAD is led by the Western Development Commission www.wdc.ie (Ireland) and is funded under the ERDF Interreg IVB Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) http://www.northernperiphery.eu